U.S. gets more oil from home than abroad

Photo by Flickr user porchlife

America is finally getting more of its oil from home than it is from abroad. October marked the first month since 1995 that the United States extracted more oil domestically than it imported, according to the Energy Department’s Information Administration.

The Obama administration welcomed the news that the United States has produced more than 7.7 million barrels of oil per day, suggesting President Obama’s emphasis on fuel efficiency standards has reduced American consumption and lessened demand for foreign imports. Allowing drilling offshore and on federal land, administration officials said, has helped boost American energy production.

Business interests complain, however, that oil imports still far exceed exports and there’s a lot more the administration could be doing to facilitate more drilling.

The EIA predicts crude oil production in the U.S. will average 8.5 million barrels per day in 2014.